There's just no stopping the juggernaut of popularity and quality game design that is the Dark Souls series. Since the latest installment of the Souls series came out in Japan a month ago, the internet has been alight with all manner of things related to Dark Souls 3. From streamers to regular players, the series has swallowed the hearts and minds of fans everywhere.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise to know that Dark Souls is getting an officially licensed board game, and that this game comes as a crowdfunding effort on Kickstarter. What might be a little bit surprising is the fact that the Kickstarter campaign was funded within 10 minutes. The campaign was launched by Steamforged Games and they were asking for $70,000. Within two hours, $200,000 was pledged.

As of right now, the campaign is close to a million, with over $988,000 pledged from over 8000 backers.

The board game is described in the Kickstarter video as "a strategically challenging, deeply immersive combat exploration game for 1-4 players set in the Dark Souls universe".

The board game, like the regular video game, can be played solo or cooperatively, according to Steamforged:

Playable in either Solo or Co-op modes, players choose their role from a number of core Dark Souls character classes. Each class has a distinct role to play in the game, with a unique set of strengths and abilities. With multiple difficulty modes and a high-level of re-playability, this is a game designed to be deep enough to satisfy hard-core tabletop gamers whilst remaining accessible to newer players.

If this all intrigues you, check out a demonstration video of the beta version of the game being played, specifically a boss encounter.

This video gives a pretty good look at what the finished game could look like. The combat seems very tactically based, definitely making the players rely on strategizing. Plus, in true Dark Souls fashion, the players are ultimately unsuccessful in defeating the boss and both wind up dead.

The stamina/damage system seems interesting to me, because you're managing two key aspects of the game on one bar, so determining when your rests will be versus when you'll go on the offensive will be a life and death situation. I think it'll add that tension that the boss fights of Souls games are so known for.